How airlines can cope with the threat of digital disasters

A packed airport terminal, long queues of tired and frustrated passengers... it’s a nightmarish scene, and one that’s becoming all too familiar.

 

In the summer of 2024, a faulty software update distributed by the international cyber security company Crowdstrike disrupted nearly 36,000 flights around the globe. Just over a year later, in September 2025, another cyber-attack left European airports paralysed, with passengers unable to check in or rebook their flights.

 

Digital technology has become an integral part of business operations and our everyday lives – something that’s especially true of the travel industry. GCHQ National Cyber Security Centre says that major cyber-attacks are becoming more common, up nearly 50% in the UK.

 

What’s more, tech-related problems aren’t like overbooked flights or poor weather. There are no forecasts or forewarnings for a digital meltdown, meaning airlines can’t plan for these disruptions.

 

But where our digital age might cause problems, it also offers some brilliant solutions. While it is important that the travel industry implements preventative measures to reduce the number of tech outages affecting flights, it’s also critical to acknowledge that disruption is unavoidable. Carriers must accept this reality and find ways to adapt to a world where unexpected flight disruptions are the new normal.

 

And with digital disasters are on the rise, so too is the cost of handling them. Research by Wipro suggests that travel disruptions cost global carriers an astounding $60 billion each year. Indeed, during last month’s cyber-attack, Swiipr recorded a threefold increase in the number of compensation payments made by its partner airlines.

 

Against this turbulent landscape, airlines should concentrate on what they can control: preparing robust and passenger-centric compensation processes to deal with this rising number of flight disruptions and the subsequent impact on customers.

 

Yet most carriers continue to use outdated, inefficient compensation systems, such as bank transfers, cash, cheques, and paper vouchers, losing out billions in administrative costs and customer loyalty.

 

Paper vouchers, often used to make food and drinks payments to passengers affected by delays, must be manually distributed by airline staff – a wildly inefficient and fraud prone process, particularly during a large-scale crisis.

 

Meanwhile, bank transfers – used for higher value pay-outs like mishandled baggage, denied boarding or regulatory compensation – also require manual distribution, require sensitive customer data, and can take weeks to arrive.

 

The result? Billions wasted in administration costs and hundreds of millions of upset passengers who feel undervalued and underserved.  At the exact time that airlines should be offering an apology to their customers, they end up frustrating them further.

 

But while our digital world may increasingly pose threats to airlines, it also offers solutions. Modern payment technology can vastly improve the disruption experience for carriers and passengers alike. The software is out there which would automate compensation, eliminate human error and fraud, and significantly reduce compensation-related administrative costs.

 

By investing in digitalised compensation payment platforms, airlines can offer instant, secure payouts at the point of disruption – totally transforming the entire customer experience. Moreover, digital payments systems offer a wealth of data, giving finance and operations teams full visibility over the true cost of a disruption the very day it happens – rather than months after the fact – giving airline management teams the data insights they need to continually improve disruption handling.  

 

With 500 million passengers effected by travel disruptions each year, airlines that continue to rely on legacy compensation systems increasingly face the reality of losing once-loyal customers. Indeed, report by PwC showed that one in three customers will abandon a brand after a single bad experience, while data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (2022) revealed that negative events are 50% more likely to be spread on social media than positive ones.

 

The bottom line is that current processes not only cause an awful customer experience, but also cost airlines enormously in administrative fees and brand reputation. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Passengers know that travel disruption is a fact of life. They know an airline cannot control every eventuality and that our digital world brings new challenges for moving from place to place.

 

But they also know that by the same token, emerging technology means airlines have no excuse for poor customer service. The digital age may offer problems – but it offers far more solutions. Airlines need to act now to get on the right side of technology.